Open Four Advances to Grand Final at IRA’s

CAMDEN, N.J. – The Yale lightweight crew team is making strides in the open four – a heavyweight event – at the 109th IRA Regatta. The Y150's finished second in their repechage to earn a spot in Saturday's grand final. The Bulldogs will now have three boats racing on Saturday with the open four in the grand final, the lightweight four in the grand final and the varsity eight with both heats and finals.

Racing in the first open four repechage at 9:30 a.m., the Yale lineup of Michael Buttrick, Chad Bailey, Joseph Hanlon, Drew Lawson and coxswain Wendy Lin put pressure on heavily favored Wisconsin to finish just over four seconds back from the Badgers, securing one of the top two spots to head to Saturday's grand final.

Open Four Repechage

1. Wisconsin 6:29.738

2. Yale 6:34.337

3. Pennsylvania 6:42.746

4. California 6:47.853

The Bulldogs will put it all on the line at 8:45 a.m. Saturday morning as they take on Navy, Wisconsin, Harvard, Washington and Cornell in the open four grand final. Yale will be racing in lane 6.

The varsity eight will see some much-anticipated action Saturday with both the heats and finals of the event – all in the span of a few hours. In order to reach the grand final and have a shot at the national title, Yale must finish in the top three in its heat to be held at 7:33 a.m. on Saturday. The Bulldogs will race in lane 4 against Dartmouth (lane 3), Navy (lane 2) and Columbia (lane 5). Three crews will also advance from the 7:21 a.m. heat of Harvard, Princeton, Cornell and Mercyhurst. Should Yale advance from its heat, the grand final will be held at 11:45 a.m. tomorrow.

In addition to the varsity eight, the Yale lightweights will field a crew in the new lightweight four event. Yale in lane 1 will line up next to Cornell (lane 2), Harvard (lane 3), Princeton (lane 4) and Navy (lane 5) in a final-only affair on Saturday at 8:21 a.m.

Full race results can be found here. Live video will continue Saturday morning at 7:00 a.m. here.